Monitoring apparatus and system

ABSTRACT

Provided is a monitoring apparatus including a communication unit which receives streaming data and metadata of a video from each of a plurality of cameras installed indoors when the cameras obtain videos by capturing specific areas, respectively; a metadata analysis unit which analyzes the received metadata and extracts information about an event that occurred; a video selection unit which selects a video containing an area in which the event occurred from the videos based on the extracted information about the event; and a screen unit which receives the selected video from the video selection unit and immediately displays the received video when the monitoring apparatus is operated.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a monitoring apparatus and system, andmore particularly, to a monitoring apparatus and system which enable auser to immediately monitor a pet or a child through a video withoutselecting and checking in which of a plurality of videos the pet or thechild exists.

BACKGROUND ART

Generally, surveillance systems are widely used in various placesincluding banks, department stores, and residential areas. Thesesurveillance systems can be used for crime prevention and securitypurposes. The most commonly used surveillance system is a closed circuittelevision (CCTV) system in which a camera is installed at anappropriate location to capture a desired area, and a user keeps an eyeon the desired area by monitoring a video captured by the camera.

Meanwhile, there have been many households that have raised pets such asdogs or cats in the house or raised children. However, when a user isout, a pet or a child can be left alone in the house. In this case, thepet or the child can be injured while walking around or playing in thehouse, or property can be damaged. Therefore, CCTV systems areincreasingly used at home, and many home cameras which are dedicatedcameras installed at home are being released recently. Accordingly, auser can monitor a video of a camera in real time or retrieve andmonitor a past video by using a monitoring apparatus in order to check apet or a child at home from outside the home.

In the past, only one home camera was often installed in one house.However, since an angle of field of a home camera is limited, it is noteasy for one home camera to capture all areas in the house. Inparticular, if each area is separated by a wall, it is impossible forone home camera to capture all areas in the house. Therefore, recently,a plurality of home cameras are increasingly being installed in onehouse, one camera in each of a living room, a kitchen, each room, etc.

However, if a plurality of home cameras are installed, when a userexecutes the operation of a monitoring apparatus to monitor a video of acamera from outside the home, the monitoring apparatus provides a listof the home cameras so that the user can select one of videos of thehome cameras. However, the user cannot know which of the home cameras iscurrently capturing a pet or a child.

Even when performing a search by inputting a specific time condition asa search condition, the user cannot know which of the home cameras wascapturing the pet or the child at the input time. Therefore, the userhas to select all the cameras on the list and check all videos one byone.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

Provided are a monitoring apparatus and system which enable a user toimmediately monitor a pet or a child through a video without selectingand checking in which of a plurality of videos the pet or the childexists.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may belearned by practice of the presented embodiments.

Technical Solution

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a monitoring apparatusincludes: a communication unit which receives streaming data andmetadata of a video from each of a plurality of cameras installedindoors when the cameras obtain videos by capturing specific areas,respectively; a metadata analysis unit which analyzes the receivedmetadata and extracts information about an event that occurred; a videoselection unit which selects a video containing an area in which theevent occurred from the videos based on the extracted information aboutthe event; and a screen unit which receives the selected video from thevideo selection unit and immediately displays the received video whenthe monitoring apparatus is operated.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a monitoring apparatusincludes: a communication unit which receives streaming data andmetadata of a video from each of a plurality of cameras installedindoors when the cameras obtain videos by capturing specific areas,respectively; a metadata analysis unit which analyzes the receivedmetadata and extracts information about an event that occurred; a videoselection unit which selects a video containing an area in which theevent occurred from the videos based on the extracted information aboutthe event; a screen unit which receives the selected video from thevideo selection unit and immediately displays the received video; and astorage unit which stores the received streaming data and metadata ofthe videos.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a monitoring system includes: aplurality of cameras installed indoors and each including an imagepickup unit which obtains a video by capturing a specific area and anevent occurrence determination unit which determines whether an eventhas occurred in the video; and a monitoring apparatus including acommunication unit which receives streaming data and metadata of thevideo from each of the cameras, a video selection unit which selects avideo containing an area in which the event occurred from the videosbased on information about the event that occurred, and a screen unitwhich receives the selected video from the video selection unit anddisplays the received video.

Advantageous Effects

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide at least one of thefollowing advantages.

When a user executes the operation of a monitoring apparatus, a video ofa pet or a child moving is immediately displayed on a screen unit.

In addition, when the user searches for a video by inputting a specificsearch condition, a video of a pet or a child moving among videosmatching the specific search condition is displayed on the screen unit.

Therefore, the user can immediately monitor a pet or a child through avideo without selecting and checking in which of a plurality of videosthe pet or the child exists.

However, the effects of the embodiments are not restricted to the oneset forth herein. The above and other effects of the embodiments willbecome more apparent to one of daily skill in the art to which theembodiments pertain by referencing the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readilyappreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a monitoring system 1 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a monitoring apparatus 10 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a camera 20 according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates metadata 3 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure which is generated when an event occurs;

FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of a control unit 11 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a case where a first video of an object 2, such as apet or a child, in which an event occurred is automatically displayed onthe monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a case where the object 2 moves from FIG. 6 toanother space and thus disappears from the first video displayed on themonitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a case where the object 2 moves from FIG. 7 toanother space and appears in a second video displayed on the monitoringapparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a case where the second video of the space to whichthe object 2 moved completely is displayed on the monitoring apparatus10 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates a case where a search condition is input to themonitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure so as to search for videos;

FIG. 11 illustrates a case where a video in which an event occurredamong videos matching the search condition input in FIG. 10 is displayedon the monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates a case where when events occur in a plurality ofvideos in FIG. 11, the monitoring apparatus 10 according to theembodiment of the present disclosure generates a split screen andsimultaneously displays the videos; and

FIG. 13 illustrates a case where when an event in one video of FIG. 12ends, the monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure no longer displays the video in which the eventended.

MODE FOR INVENTION

Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods ofaccomplishing the same may be understood more readily by reference tothe following detailed description of exemplary embodiments and theaccompanying drawings. The present disclosure may, however, be embodiedin many different forms and should not be construed as being limited tothe embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are providedso that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fullyconvey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art, and thepresent disclosure will only be defined by the appended claims. Likereference numerals refer to like components throughout thespecification.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It willbe further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated components, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other components.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a monitoring system 1 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of amonitoring apparatus 10 of FIG. 1.

According to a method of using the monitoring system 1 according to theembodiment of the present disclosure, a plurality of cameras 20 areinstalled in various directions at various locations in an indoor spaceand obtain videos by capturing different areas, respectively. Here, auser may execute the operation of the monitoring apparatus 10 or mayperform a search by inputting a search condition. Then, the monitoringapparatus 10 first displays a video of an object 2 (see FIG. 6) such asa pet or a child among the videos transmitted by the cameras 20.Therefore, the user can immediately monitor the object 2 through thevideo without selecting and checking in which of the videos the object 2exists.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the monitoring system 1 according to theembodiment of the present disclosure includes the cameras 20 whichobtain videos by capturing specific areas and the monitoring apparatus10 which receives and displays streaming data of the videos obtained bythe cameras 20. The cameras 20 and the monitoring apparatus 10 may beconnected to each other in a wired or wireless manner to transmit andreceive video data or signals.

Each of the cameras 20 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure obtains an image by capturing a specific area and receivingan image signal for the specific area. To this end, each of the cameras20 generally includes an image pickup device such as a charge coupleddevice (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imagesensor. Each of the cameras 20 may be a pan-tilt camera capable ofpanning and tilting, in particular, may be a camera that can pan 360degrees to capture all directions including front, back, left and rightdirections. Alternatively, each of the cameras 20 may be a 360-degreecamera introduced recently. The 360-degree camera refers to a cameracapable of capturing all directions simultaneously using a plurality offisheye lenses, instead of the camera itself physically panning ortilting. In this case, an image obtained by the 360-degree camera ispanned or tilted by software installed in the monitoring apparatus 10.The cameras 20 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure arenot limited to the above examples, and various cameras 20 can be used aslong as they can capture a plurality of areas. The cameras 20 may alsoperform a video analysis function. This will be described in detaillater.

The monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure receives and displays videos obtained by the cameras 20. Asillustrated in FIG. 2, the monitoring apparatus 10 may be a portabledevice that can be easily carried by a user, such as a smartphone, atablet PC, a laptop computer, etc. However, the monitoring apparatus 10is not limited to the above examples and may also be a device thatcannot be easily carried, such as a desktop computer.

A user can install and delete various applications in and from themonitoring apparatus 10. Of these, a camera control application may beexecuted, and a signal for controlling panning or tilting of an imagemay be generated using an input method such as a touch or a mouse. If animage can be panned or tilted by physical panning or tilting of a camera20 itself, the control signal is transmitted to the camera 20. However,if the camera 20 is a 360-degree camera, the control signal pans ortilts the image through the software installed in the monitoringapparatus 10.

The monitoring apparatus 10 includes a control unit 11, a storage unit12, and a screen unit 13 as illustrated in FIG. 1. These components maybe connected to each other through a bus 15 so as to communicate witheach other. All components included in the control unit 11 may beconnected to the bus 15 through at least one interface or adapter or maybe directly connected to the bus 15. In addition, the bus 15 may beconnected to sub-systems other than the above-mentioned components. Thebus 15 includes a memory bus, a memory controller, a peripheral bus, alocal bus, etc.

The control unit 11 controls the overall operation of the monitoringapparatus 10. For example, the control unit 11 performs processing andcontrolling for signal and data communication between a first networkinterface 31 and the cameras 20 and performs video processing such asdecoding and rendering when receiving video streaming data from thecameras 20 through the first network interface 31. In addition, thecontrol unit 11 stores metadata 3 (see FIG. 4) when receiving themetadata 3 from the cameras 20. When a user performs a search byinputting a search condition, the control unit 11 retrieves searchresults matching the condition by searching the stored metadata 3. Whena video selection unit 112 (see FIG. 5) selects a specific video from aplurality of videos, the control unit 11 controls the screen unit 13 toload and display the specific video. The control unit 11 may be acentral processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller unit (MCU), or adigital signal processor (DSP). However, the control unit 11 is notlimited to these examples, and various logical operation processors canbe used. The control unit 11 will be described in detail later.

The storage unit 12 stores programs for processing and controllingoperations of the monitoring apparatus 10, various data generated duringthe execution of each program, received signals, etc. In addition, thestorage unit 12 stores the video streaming data and the metadata 3received from the cameras 20. The storage unit 12 may be embedded in themonitoring apparatus 10. However, in the case of a network camerasystem, a separate device such as a network video recorder (NVR) may beprovided. The storage unit 12 includes a nonvolatile memory device and avolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device may be a NANDflash memory that is small in volume, lightweight and resistant toexternal impact, and the volatile memory device may be a double datarate synchronous dynamic random-access memory (DDR SDRAM).

The screen unit 13 displays a video transmitted from each camera 20. Thevideo may be a real-time video captured and obtained in real time byeach camera 20 or may be a video loaded and displayed after beingpreviously captured and stored in the storage unit 12. If the monitoringapparatus 10 does not provide a touch function, an input unit 14 isprovided separately. The most commonly used examples of the input unit14 include a mouse, a keyboard, a joystick, and a remote control. Theinput unit 14 may be connected to the bus 15 through an input interface141 such as a serial port, a parallel port, a game port, a universalserial bus (USB), etc. However, if the monitoring apparatus 10 providesthe touch function, the screen unit 13 may include a touch sensor 111.In this case, the input unit 14 need not be provided separately, and auser may directly input a touch signal through the screen unit 13. Atouch may be performed using a finger. However, embodiments are notlimited to this case, and a touch may also be performed using a styluspen equipped with a tip through which a microcurrent can flow. Even ifthe monitoring apparatus 10 provides the touch function, a separatetouch pad may be provided as the input unit 14 if the screen unit 13does not include a touch sensor.

The screen unit 13 may be of various types such as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), an organic light emitting display (OLED), a cathode raytube (CRT), and a plasma display panel (PDP). The screen unit 13 may beconnected to the bus 15 through a video interface 131, and datatransmission between the screen unit 13 and the bus 15 may be controlledby a graphic controller 132.

The monitoring apparatus 10 may be connected to a network 30. Therefore,the monitoring apparatus 10 may be connected to other devices throughthe network 30 to transmit and receive various data and signalsincluding the metadata 3. Here, the first network interface 31 mayreceive communication data in the form of one or more packets from thenetwork 30, and the monitoring apparatus 10 may store the receivedcommunication data for processing by the control unit 11. Similarly, themonitoring apparatus 10 may store communication data to be transmittedin the storage unit 12 in the form of one or more packets, and the firstnetwork interface 31 may transmit the communication data to the network30.

The first network interface 31 may include a first network interfacecard, a modem, etc., and the network 30 may include variouswired/wireless communication methods such as the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a telephone network 30, anddirect connection communication.

The cameras 20 and the monitoring apparatus 10 may be directly connectedto each other through the network 30, but may also be connected via aseparate storage server (not illustrated). The storage server is formedseparately from the storage unit 12 of the monitoring apparatus 10 andstores the video streaming data and the metadata 3 of the cameras 20.Therefore, even when the monitoring apparatus 10 is powered off or notin a state to receive data, various data is stored in the storageserver. Then, when the monitoring apparatus 10 is powered on or in astate to receive data, the data stored in the storage server may betransmitted from the storage server to the monitoring apparatus 10. Thestorage server may be a storage device such as an NVR or a digital videorecorder (DVR) or may be a storage device such as cloud provided by aseparate service provider.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a camera 20 according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

The camera 20 includes an image pickup unit 21 which receives an imagesignal, a second network interface 24 which transmits videos and data tothe monitoring apparatus 10 through the network 30, an event occurrencedetermination unit 22 which determines whether an event has occurred,and a metadata generation unit 23 which generates the metadata 3 (seeFIG. 4) using information about an event when the event occurs. Thesecomponents may be connected to a bus (not illustrated) through at leastone interface or adapter or may be directly connected to the bus.

The image pickup unit 21 receives an image signal for a specific area.The image pickup unit 21 generally includes an image pickup device suchas a CCD or a CMOS image sensor. The CCD accumulates electrons generatedby a photoelectric effect when light is irradiated to a plurality ofphotodiodes and transmits the accumulated electrons. Here, imageinformation that forms a screen is generated by analyzing a change inthe amount of electrons generated according to the amount of photons andreconstructing information. The CCD has advantages of clear imagequality and little noise but disadvantages of high power consumption andlow processing speed.

The CMOS image sensor is an image sensor using a CMOS and includes anamplifier in each cell to immediately amplify electrons generated bylight into an electrical signal and transmit the electrical signal. TheCMOS image sensor is inexpensive and has low power consumption and highprocessing speed, but has a lot of noise.

The event occurrence determination unit 22 determines whether an eventhas occurred through a video analysis function. Here, the video analysisfunction refers to a function of separating the object 2 (see FIG. 6)from the background in a video and automatically extracting features ofthe object 2. To separate the object 2 from the background, for example,a window search technique can be used. In addition, the features of theobject 2 can be extracted as binary coded features such as local binarypatterns (LBP) or modified census transform (MCT) or can be extracted ashistogram features, whose histogram is to be calculated later, such asspeeded-up robust features (SURF), scale invariant feature transform(SIFT), or histogram of oriented gradients (HOG). Further, the eventoccurrence determination unit 22 may perform a face recognitionfunction. The window search technique can be used to detect a faceregion of a person, and various methods such as adaboost, random forest,support vector machine (SVM), and neural network (NN) can be used as aclassifier stored in a window. If the event occurrence determinationunit 22 separates the object 2 from the background and extracts thefeatures of the object 2 by performing the video analysis function, thisvideo analysis result is converted into the metadata 3 and transmittedto the monitoring apparatus 10.

However, embodiments are not limited to this case, and a video analysisengine provided separately may also perform the video analysis functioninstead of the camera 20. In this case, the video analysis enginereceives video streaming data directly from the camera 20 and performsthe video analysis function. Then, video analysis result data may beconverted into the metadata 3 and transmitted to the monitoringapparatus 10. That is, the monitoring system 1 can be formed in any formas long as the monitoring apparatus 10 can receive the video analysisresult as the metadata 3.

The monitoring system 1 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure will be described below based on the assumption that theevent occurrence determination unit 22 included in the camera 20analyzes a video and determines whether an event has occurred. However,this is only for ease of description and is not intended to limit thescope of rights.

When an event occurs, the metadata generation unit 23 generates themetadata 3 using information about the event. The metadata 3 is datathat describes specific data and specifies the type of the specificdata. The metadata 3 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure will be described in detail later.

The camera 20 may be connected to other devices through the network 30and may transmit and receive various data and signals including themetadata 3. Here, the second network interface 24 may receivecommunication data in the form of one or more packets from the network30, and the camera 20 may store the received communication data.Similarly, the camera 20 may store communication data to be transmittedin a storage unit (not illustrated) in the form of one or more packets,and the second network interface 24 may transmit the communication datato the network 30.

The second network interface 24 may include a second network interfacecard, a modem, etc., and the network 30 may include variouswired/wireless communication methods such as the Internet, a WAN, a LAN,a telephone network 30, and direct connection communication.

FIG. 4 illustrates the metadata 3 according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure which is generated when an event occurs.

When an event occurs, the metadata generation unit 23 generates themetadata 3 using information about the event as described above. Themetadata 3 is data that describes specific data and specifies the typeof the specific data for easy retrieval of the specific data. Here,while the specific data is data that is large in size and is not easy toretrieve, such as music or moving images, the metadata 3 is very smallin size and easy to retrieve because it consists of a character string.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the metadata 3 contains information about aunique ID of an identified object 2, the number of identified objects 2(see FIG. 6), the position of the object 2, the time when an eventoccurred, an identifier of a camera 20 that obtained a video, etc.Specifically, in FIG. 4, utc may indicate information about the timewhen an event occurred, cam.ID may indicate an identifier of a camera 20that obtained a video, and numObj may indicate the number of identifiedobjects 2. Obj[0].left, right, top, bottom, etc. indicate the positionof the object 2, that is, coordinate information of the position of eachvertex of a virtual window surrounding the object 2.

In addition, obj[0].objID is an ID indicating a unique identifier of theobject 2. Even if one object 2 moves or appears after disappearing for awhile, the camera 20 still assigns the same ID to the object 2 byidentifying it as the same object 2 through video analysis. However, ifanother object 2 appears, the camera 20 assigns a new ID to the object 2by identifying it as a different object.

As described above, a plurality of cameras 20 are formed. After aspecific ID is assigned to a specific object 2 in a first video capturedby a first camera 20 a, the object 2 may disappear from the first videoof the first camera 20 a and appear in a second video captured by asecond camera 20 b. In this case, the second camera 20 b assigns theobject 2 the same ID as the specific ID assigned by the first camera 20a.

When the second camera 20 b detects the appearance of the object 2 inthe second video that it captured, it should communicate with the firstcamera 20 a among the cameras 20. This is because the first camera 20 aassigned the specific ID to the object 2 before the second camera 20 band because the second camera 20 b can assign the same ID as the IDassigned by the first camera 20 a only after identifying what ID thefirst camera 20 a assigned to the object 2. The second camera 20 b maycommunicate with the cameras 20 in order to identify which of thecameras 20 captured the object 2 first. Here, the cameras 20 may bedirectly connected to communicate with each other, but may also beconnected using various methods, for example, through the monitoringapparatus 10 or a separate access point (AP). In addition, when thesecond camera 20 b detects the occurrence of an event in which thespecific object 2 appears, it first checks the time when the eventoccurred and selects cameras 20 that detected the occurrence of an eventat a time close to the event occurrence time. Then, the second camera 20b compares video analysis results of the selected cameras 20 with itsvideo analysis result for the object 2. If determining that a matchingrate between the object 2 and the object 2 appearing in the video of thefirst camera 20 a is higher than a specific level, the second camera 20b determines that the object 2 is the same object as the object 2appearing in the video of the first camera 20 a and identifies an IDassigned to the object 2 by the first camera 20 a. Then, the secondcamera 20 b assigns the object 2 the same ID as the ID assigned by thefirst camera 20 a. Therefore, if a user searches for a video later, thevideo may be automatically converted by identifying the movement of thesame object 2.

Here, the matching rate refers to the proportion of matching featuresamong features of the object 2 extracted from each video through videoanalysis. The features are, for example, the type of a pet, the color offur, the size of the body, etc. In addition, the specific level may beabout 80 to 90%. However, the specific level is not limited to thisexample and can be set to various values.

FIG. 5 is a detailed block diagram of the control unit 11 according toan embodiment of the present disclosure.

The control unit 11 includes a metadata analysis unit 111 which analyzesthe metadata 3, the video selection unit 112 which selects a video inwhich an event occurred from a plurality of videos, and a video searchunit 113 which searches for videos according to a user's command.

The metadata analysis unit 111 analyzes the generated metadata 3. Asdescribed above, the metadata 3 contains information about an identifiedobject 2 (see FIG. 6), the position of the object 2, the time when anevent occurred, an identifier of a camera 20 that obtained acorresponding video, etc. The metadata analysis unit 111 analyzes themetadata 3 transmitted from the camera 20 and sends information aboutthe event to the video selection unit 112.

The video selection unit 112 selects a video in which an event occurredfrom videos transmitted from a plurality of cameras 20. Here, whether anevent has occurred can be determined based on information received fromthe metadata analysis unit 111. When a motion event in which a specificobject 2 appears and moves occurs in a video captured by a specificcamera 20, the video selection unit 112 receives information about thisevent from the metadata analysis unit 111. In addition, the videoselection unit 112 selects a video in which the motion event occurredfrom the videos obtained from the cameras 20. When the video selectionunit 112 transmits the selected video to the screen unit 13, the screenunit 13 loads and displays the selected video so that the user canmonitor the specific object 2.

If events occur in a plurality of videos due to the movement of thespecific object 2, the video selection unit 112 may synthesize thevideos in the time order in which the events occurred. In this case, ifthe specific object 2 moves to disappear from a first video and appearin a second video, the first video displayed on the screen unit 13 isnaturally changed to the second video.

Further, if there are a plurality of objects 2, for example, if the userraises two or more pets, a plurality of events may occur simultaneously.In addition, the cameras 20 may obtain a plurality of videos bycapturing the events, respectively. In this case, the video selectionunit 112 may select all of the videos and synthesize the videos in aspecific arrangement and then transmit the synthesized videos to thescreen unit 13. Then, the screen unit 13 may generate a split screenaccording to the specific arrangement and display all of the videossimultaneously. Here, if the user selects one of the videos, the splitscreen may disappear, and the screen unit 13 may display only the videoselected by the user.

As described above, the cameras 20 may obtain videos of the indoorspace. In particular, the cameras 20 may obtain videos by capturing apet or a child left in the indoor space while the user is out. Thisenables the user to easily monitor the pet or the child using themonitoring apparatus 10 even when the user is out. Meanwhile, an object2 existing in the indoor space is generally one or two pets or one ortwo children. Accordingly, the number of events that occursimultaneously at a specific time is only a few. Therefore, even if aplurality of videos are all displayed simultaneously on a split screengenerated, one segment of the split screen does not become too small.

In this way, the user can easily monitor the object 2 without missingthe object 2 or having to check other cameras 20 one by one to findwhere the object 2 is located.

The video search unit 113 searches videos stored in the storage unit 12for videos that match a search condition input by the user. The user canmonitor the current situation of the areas captured by the cameras 20through real-time live videos. In addition, the user can search for avideo that matches a specific search condition among the videos storedin the storage unit 12 and then monitor the found video. In this case,the user inputs a search condition such as a time condition in order tosearch for a video. Then, the video search unit 113 searches the storedmetadata 3. When the metadata 3 about videos that match the searchcondition are found, the video selection unit 112 selects a video inwhich an event occurred from the videos corresponding to the metadata 3.Then, the video selection unit 112 transmits the selected video to thescreen unit 13, and the screen unit 13 displays the selected video sothat the user can monitor the specific object 2. In this way, a videomatching the specified search condition can be quickly retrieved as asearch result among the videos stored in the storage unit 12.

Each component of the monitoring apparatus 10 described above may beimplemented as a software component, such as a task, a class, asubroutine, a process, an object 2, an execution thread or a programperformed in a predetermined region of a memory, or a hardwarecomponent, such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) orapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In addition, thecomponents may be composed of a combination of the software and hardwarecomponents. The components may be reside on a computer-readable storagemedium or may be distributed over a plurality of computers.

And each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code,which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementingspecified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in somealternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occurout of the order. For example, two blocks shown in succession may infact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimesbe executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionalityinvolved.

FIG. 6 illustrates a case where a first video of an object 2, such as apet or a child, in which an event occurred is automatically displayed onthe monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

A process in which the monitoring system 1 according to the embodimentof the present disclosure operates will now be described in detail usingan example.

A plurality of cameras 20 are installed in various directions at variouslocations in an indoor space. For example, in a typical home, the firstcamera 20 a may be installed in a living room, the second camera 20 bmay be installed in a room, and a third camera 20 c may be installed ina kitchen. Each of the cameras 20 obtains a video of an area that itcaptures.

Here, when a user executes the operation of the monitoring apparatus 10according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the monitoringapparatus 10 prepares to receive data. In addition, each of the cameras20 transmits streaming data and metadata 3 of a video that it obtainedto the monitoring apparatus 10. Here, when a motion event in which aspecific object 2 in the living room moves occurs, the first camera 20 ainstalled in the living room determines that the event has occurredthrough the video analysis function and extracts features of the object2. Then, the metadata generation unit 23 of the first camera 20 agenerates the metadata 3 containing information about the event thatoccurred. When the monitoring apparatus 10 receives the video streamingdata and the metadata 3 from each of the cameras 20, the metadataanalysis unit 111 analyzes the metadata 3 and transmits informationabout an event to the video selection unit 112. Based on thisinformation, the video selection unit 112 recognizes that an event iscurrently occurring or has most recently occurred in the first video andselects the first video. When the video selection unit 112 transmits thefirst video to the screen unit 13, the screen unit 13 loads and displaysthe received first video as illustrated in FIG. 6. In this way, themonitoring apparatus 10 displays a video in which an event is currentlyoccurring or has most recently occurred among a plurality of videosreceived. Therefore, the user can immediately monitor the object 2without having to search for the object 2 by checking the videosobtained by the cameras 20 one by one.

FIG. 7 illustrates a case where the object 2 moves from FIG. 6 toanother space and thus disappears from the first video displayed on themonitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

The object 2 such as a pet or a child does not always stay in one space.For example, the object 2 in the living room may move to another spacesuch as the kitchen or the room. Here, if the first camera 20 a iscapturing only the living room, the object 2 may not be included in anangle of view of the first camera 20 a after the object 2 moves. Even ifthe first camera 20 a is a pan-tilt camera or a 360-degree camera, ifthe object 2 moves to another space separated from the living room by awall, the object 2 exists in a blind spot of the first camera 20 a.Therefore, the first camera 20 a can no longer capture the object 2, andthe object 2 disappears from the first video as illustrated in FIG. 7.In this case, the first camera 20 a cannot determine whether an eventhas occurred in the first video that it obtained.

FIG. 8 illustrates a case where the object 2 moves from FIG. 7 toanother space and appears in a second video displayed on the monitoringapparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG.9 illustrates a case where the second video of the space to which theobject 2 moved completely is displayed on the monitoring apparatus 10according to the embodiment of the present disclosure.

Other cameras 20 are installed in other spaces such as the kitchen andthe room. Here, the object 2 may move from the living room to the roomas illustrated in FIG. 8. Then, the second camera 20 b installed in theroom determines that an event has occurred through the video analysisfunction and extracts features of the object 2. In addition, the secondcamera 20 b checks the time when the event occurred and selects, fromthe cameras 20, cameras 20 that detected the occurrence of an event at atime close to the event occurrence time by communicating with thecameras 20 through the network 30. Then, the second camera 20 b comparesvideo analysis results of the selected cameras 20 with its videoanalysis result for the object 2. If determining that a matching ratebetween the object 2 and the object 2 appearing in the video of thefirst camera 20 a is higher than a specific level, the second camera 20b determines that the object 2 is the same object as the object 2appearing in the video of the first camera 20 a and identifies an IDassigned to the object 2 by the first camera 20 a. Then, the secondcamera 20 b assigns the object 2 the same ID as the ID assigned by thefirst camera 20 a. The metadata generation unit 23 of the second camera20 b generates the metadata 3 containing information about the eventthat occurred, such as the assigned ID of the object 2, the time whenthe event occurred, an identifier of the second camera 20 b, etc.

When the monitoring apparatus 10 receives the video streaming data andthe metadata 3 from each of the cameras 20, the metadata analysis unit111 analyzes the metadata 3 and transmits information about an event tothe video selection unit 112. Based on this information, the videoselection unit 112 recognizes that an event is currently occurring orhas most recently occurred in the second video and selects the secondvideo. When the video selection unit 112 stops transmitting the firstvideo and transmits the second video, the screen unit 13 stopsdisplaying the first video and loads and displays the received secondvideo as illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9. Therefore, a user can immediatelymonitor the object 2 without having to check a plurality of videos oneby one to find the object 2 that disappeared.

FIG. 10 illustrates a case where a search condition is input to themonitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure so as to search for videos.

As described above with reference to FIGS. 6 through 9, the monitoringapparatus 10 may immediately display a video obtained by a camera 20.Therefore, a user can easily grasp the current situation by monitoringsuch as a live video.

However, there is a case where the user desires to check the content ofan event that has already occurred. For example, if the user finds abroken vase in the living room when returning home after going out, heor she may want to monitor what event occurred in the past.

If the monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure is used, not only a live video but also a videopreviously obtained and stored can be displayed. To this end, the userfirst inputs a search condition as illustrated in FIG. 10. The user mayenter the date and time that the user wants to monitor and then click ortouch a ‘Search’ button.

FIG. 11 illustrates a case where a video in which an event occurredamong videos matching the search condition input in FIG. 10 is displayedon the monitoring apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

If a plurality of cameras 20 are always capturing the indoor space, aplurality of videos are stored. Therefore, when a user performs a videosearch by inputting a search condition as illustrated in FIG. 10, thevideo search unit 113 retrieves a plurality of videos matching thesearch condition as search results.

However, an event does not always occur in all areas captured by thecameras 20. If a motion event in which the object 2 moves in the livingroom occurs at a time input as the search condition, the first camera 20a installed in the living room may generate the metadata 3 containinginformation about the event. Using the information about the event inthe metadata 3, the video selection unit 112 may identify that the eventthat occurred at the above time is included in the first video obtainedby the first camera 20 a. Therefore, the video selection unit 112selects the first video from a plurality of videos. When the videoselection unit 112 transmits the first video to the screen unit 13, thescreen unit 13 loads and displays the received first video asillustrated in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 illustrates a case where when events occur in a plurality ofvideos in FIG. 11, the monitoring apparatus 10 according to theembodiment of the present disclosure generates a split screen andsimultaneously displays the videos. FIG. 13 illustrates a case wherewhen an event in one video of FIG. 12 ends, the monitoring apparatus 10according to the embodiment of the present disclosure no longer displaysthe video in which the event ended.

As described above, when there are a plurality of objects 2 a and 2 b, aplurality of events may occur simultaneously. In addition, a pluralityof cameras 20 may obtain videos by capturing the events, respectively.In this case, the video selection unit 112 may select all of the videosand synthesize the videos and then transmit the synthesized videos tothe screen unit 13. Then, the screen unit 13 may generate a split screenand simultaneously display all of the videos as illustrated in FIG. 12.

Here, the video selection unit 112 may synthesize the videos byarranging the videos horizontally or vertically. Alternatively, if thenumber of videos increases, the videos may be arranged in a lattice. Thevideos may be the same or different sizes. Further, if a user inputs acommand to change the arrangement of the videos while monitoring thevideos, the video selection unit 112 changes the arrangement of thevideos according to the user's command. Then, the screen unit 13generates a split screen as the videos are synthesized. When the userselects one of the videos, the split screen may disappear, and thescreen unit 13 may display only the selected video.

There may be a case where a plurality of events occur from a timecorresponding to a start condition in a search condition input by theuser. In this case, a plurality of videos may be simultaneouslydisplayed from the beginning. However, there may also be a case whereone event occurs at the time corresponding to the start condition, andthen a plurality of events occur later. For example, in a state wheredifferent objects 2 a and 2 b exist in the living room and the room,respectively, the first object 2 a existing in the living room may move,resulting in a motion event. However, the second object 2 b existing inthe room may sleep without moving and, after a certain period of time,may move, resulting in another motion event.

In this case, the video selection unit 112 may synthesize a plurality ofvideos in the time order in which the events occurred. First, only thefirst video may be selected from the time corresponding to the startcondition. Therefore, the screen unit 13 of the monitoring apparatus 10may initially display only the first video as illustrated in FIG. 11.Then, the first video and the second video may be synthesized from atime when the second object 2 b starts to move. Therefore, after acertain period of time, the screen unit 13 of the monitoring apparatus10 may display a composite video of the first video and the second videoas illustrated in FIG. 12.

The first video and the composite video of the first video and thesecond video may also be synthesized in the time order. Therefore,videos can be naturally displayed despite the generation of a splitscreen.

While the first object 2 a and the second object 2 b are moving in theliving room and the room, respectively, if the first object 2 a stopsmoving and sleeps, only the second object 2 b may move from that time.Then, the video selection unit 112 cancels the selection of the firstvideo and selects only the second video. In this case, only the secondvideo is synthesized behind the composite video of the first video andthe second video in the time order. Therefore, the screen unit 13displays only the second video as illustrated in FIG. 13. At this time,the user does not monitor the first object 2 a which stopped moving andmonitors only the second object 2 b which keeps moving.

While the present disclosure has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form anddetail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present disclosure as defined by the following claims. Theexemplary embodiments should be considered in a descriptive sense onlyand not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present disclosureis defined by the following claims, rather than by the above-describeddetailed description. The meanings and scope of the claims, and allmodifications or modified shapes, which are derived from equivalentconcepts thereof, should be understood as being included in the scope ofthe present disclosure.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A monitoring apparatus comprising: a communication unit which receives streaming data and metadata of a video from each of a plurality of cameras installed indoors when the cameras obtain videos by capturing specific areas, respectively; a metadata analysis unit which analyzes the received metadata and extracts information about an event that occurred; a video selection unit which selects a video containing an area in which the event occurred among the videos based on the extracted information about the event; and a screen unit which displays in a split screen, only the selected video that contains the area in which the event occurred when the monitoring apparatus is operated, wherein, while the screen unit displays the selected video in which the event occurred, if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that another event has most recently occurred in another area contained in another video and that an object identifier (ID) from metadata of the selected video and an object ID from metadata of the other video are the same, the screen unit stops displaying the selected video and displays the other video, wherein the selected video and the other video are captured by different cameras, among the cameras, capturing images of different areas, respectively, and wherein if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that the object ID from metadata of the selected video and the object ID from metadata of the other video are not the same, the screen unit initially displays in a split screen a composite video of the selected video and the other video, and subsequently, displays in a single screen only the other video when the event in the selected video stops.
 2. The monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the other event occurs in the other area and captured in the other video from a first camera among the cameras, the video selection unit: selects the other video showing the other area and the selected video, from a second camera among the cameras, showing the area; and synthesizes the other video and the selected video in the split screen in a specific arrangement.
 3. The monitoring apparatus of claim 2, wherein when one of the selected video and the other video is selected by a user, the screen unit displays only one of the other video and the selected video selected by the user.
 4. The monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the area in which the event occurred changes over time, the video selection unit synthesizes a plurality of videos containing the area in which the event occurred in a time order and transmits the synthesized videos to the screen unit.
 5. A monitoring apparatus comprising: a communication unit which receives streaming data and metadata of a video from each of a plurality of cameras installed indoors when the cameras obtain videos by capturing specific areas, respectively; a metadata analysis unit which analyzes the received metadata and extracts information about an event that occurred; a video selection unit which selects a video containing an area in which the event occurred among the videos based on the extracted information about the event; a screen unit which displays in a split screen, only the selected video that contains the area in which the event occurred when the monitoring apparatus is operated, wherein, while the screen unit displays the selected video in which the event occurred, if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that another event has most recently occurred in another area contained in another video and that an object identifier (ID) from metadata of the selected video and an object ID from metadata of the other video are the same, the screen unit stops displaying the selected video and displays the other video, wherein the selected video and the other video are captured by different cameras, among the cameras, capturing different areas, respectively, and wherein if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that the object identifier (ID) from metadata of the selected video and the object ID from metadata of the other video are not the same, the screen unit initially displays in a split screen a composite video of the selected video and the other video, and subsequently, displays in a single screen only the other video when the event in the selected video stops.
 6. The monitoring apparatus of claim 5, further comprising a video search unit which receives a search condition and retrieves videos matching the search condition as search results among the videos stored in a storage unit.
 7. The monitoring apparatus of claim 6, wherein the video selection unit selects the video containing the area in which the event occurred from the videos retrieved as the search results.
 8. The monitoring apparatus of claim 5, wherein when the other event occurs in the other area and captured in the other video from a first camera among the cameras, the video selection unit selects the other video and the selected video showing the other area and the area in which the other event and the event occurs, respectively, synthesizes the other video and the selected video in a specific arrangement, and transmits the synthesized other video and selected video to the screen unit to generate the split screen displaying the synthesized other video and selected video according to the specific arrangement.
 9. The monitoring apparatus of claim 8, wherein when one of the synthesized other video and selected video is selected by a user, the screen unit displays only one of the synthesized other video and selected video selected by the user.
 10. The monitoring apparatus of claim 5, wherein if the area in which the event occurred changes over time, the video selection unit synthesizes a plurality of videos containing the area in which the event occurred in a time order and transmits the synthesized videos to the screen unit.
 11. A monitoring system comprising: a plurality of cameras installed indoors and each comprising an image pickup unit configured to obtain a video by capturing a specific area and an event occurrence determination unit configured to determine whether an event has occurred in the video; and a monitor configured to receive streaming data and metadata of the video from each of the cameras, select a video containing an area in which the event occurred among the videos based on information about the event that occurred, and display, in a split screen, only the selected video that contains the area in which the event occurred when the monitoring apparatus is operated, wherein, while the screen unit displays the selected video in which the event occurred, if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that another event has most recently occurred in another area contained in another video and that an object identifier (ID) from metadata of the selected video and an object ID from metadata of the other video are the same, the screen unit stops displaying the selected video and displays the other video, the selected video and the other video are captured by different cameras, among the cameras, capturing images of different areas, respectively, and wherein if the metadata analysis unit recognizes that the object identifier (ID) from metadata of the selected video and the object ID from metadata of the other video are not the same, the screen unit initially displays in a split screen a composite video of the selected video and the other video, and subsequently, displays in a single screen only the other video when the event in the selected video stops.
 12. The monitoring system of claim 11, further comprising: a storage unit which stores the received streaming data and metadata of the videos, which are previously captured and stored in the storage unit; and a video search unit which receives a search condition and retrieves videos matching the search condition as search results among the videos stored in the storage unit, wherein the monitor selects the video containing the area in which the event occurred from the videos retrieved as the search results.
 13. The monitoring system of claim 11, wherein when the other event occurs in other area and captured in the other video from a first camera among the cameras, the monitor: selects the other video showing the other area and the selected video, from a second camera among the cameras, showing the area; and synthesizes the other video and the selected video in the split screen in a specific arrangement.
 14. The monitoring system of claim 11, wherein at least one camera among the cameras is configured to: checks a time when the event occurred; select a camera which detected occurrence of the other event at a substantially same time as the time when the event occurred; and determine similarity or identity of the event and the other event.
 15. The monitoring system of claim 14, wherein the at least one camera is further configured to select the camera and determine the similarity based on metadata received from the selected camera.
 16. The monitoring system of claim 15, wherein the metadata comprises an identifier (ID) of an object corresponding to the other event, and wherein, based on determining the similarity or identity, the at least one camera is further configured to assign the same ID or another ID to an object corresponding to the event.
 17. The monitoring system of claim 16, wherein the monitor is further configured to select and display the selected video based on the same ID or the other ID. 